Five Eyes is an intelligence alliance with 5 countries: The United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. The alliance was first formed between the United States and the United Kingdom known as the UKUSA Agreement in 1946 in light of the aftermath of World War II.
Then in 1955 the UKUSA Agreement added Canada, Australia and New Zealand. “The Commonwealth countries were required to collaborate directly with tasks as determined by the [NSA]” (Five Eyes: Unblinking, Unmoving and out of control). “Each of the respective nations included with the Agreement have their own anti-domestic surveillance laws. It is alleged that each party to the Agreement spies on other parties’ citizens and the intelligence gleaned therein is shared amongst at least the collective” (Five Eyes: Unblinking, Unmoving and out of control). “Nearly all of the information available on Five Eyes was intended to be classified, but many documents were made public through a series of legal fights and massive whistleblowing” (Five Eyes: Unblinking, Unmoving and out of control). In short, the Five Eyes at the time, was a top-secret global agency in which they spied on other countries that threatened their own to protect the well-being of their citizens after WW2.
When we hear of a secret alliance we think of top secret information: the Five Eyes is exactly that but on the highest level. Every piece of information, operations, conversations and accomplishments was kept between 4 walls. Some presidents of the countries didn’t even know the organization existed.
ECHELON was a surveillance program that was created in the 1960’s and formally established in 1971 through the Five Eyes. ECHELON was the government's “code name” for the organization and NSA’s computer system. Its original purpose was to “monitor the military and diplomatic communications of the Soviet Union and its Eastern Bloc allies during the Cold War" (Q&A: What you need to know about Echelon)
However, that intensely progressed over the years. ECHELON collected data by FROSTING in which they intercepted Soviet satellite transmissions. Confirmed in 2001 by a European Parliament investigation they founded that “ECHELON was capable of interception and content inspection of telephone calls, fax, e-mail and other data traffic globally through the interception of communication bearers including satellite transmission, public switched telephone networks (which once carried most Internet traffic), and microwave links" (European Parliment.eu).
Attached is a visual aid timeline of the Five Eyes
Some of the most notable accomplishments of the Five Eyes include, the strong relationship between the US and UK during the Cold War, specifically the US relied on British intelligence for listening posts in the Middle East and the Five Eyes provided Britain with intelligence for tracking Soviet submarines.
Now let's talk about the elephant in the room: is the Five Eyes legal? Let's ask ourselves the questions: Does the Five Eyes Agreement violate any amendments? Yes, The Five Eyes violates both the 4th and 5th amendment.
The 4th amendment: The rights of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.
From a legal standpoint, it’s clear that Five Eyes have been violating our 4th and 5th amendment rights since 1946. This negatively affects myself, family friends and loved ones, affects society's trust towards the American Government, and affects every classification segment of Americans. The worst part about the American participation in the Five Eyes is that we are using other countries like Canada and Australia to gather information about our citizens: The Five Eyes is a secret channel of breaking our 4th and 5th amendment rights.
When this disgraceful information becomes apparent to American citizens, our government will blame it on Australia or Canada and say “they did it, we did nothing wrong, we would never violate your rights' '. I understand that there have been countless successes of the Five Eyes, however when it violates our trust and breaks the law, that's where it becomes an untrustworthy organization. Not only do their actions affect American society, it affects the entire world. If the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada are monitoring other countries like Germany, Japan and China, this is a global reach. Our world society will constantly be on edge wondering if their government is spying on them, they will not feel safe. The Five Eyes illegal activity doesn’t not affect me as much as it affected my family, specifically my great grandmother (born in the 1920’s), grandparents who lived through World War 2 & the Cold War and my parents who lived through the cold war. However, who knows what Five Eyes is doing today in 2022. I guess we will find out in a decade or two.
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